According to local news reports
picked up by Deutsch Presse Agentur, authorities in Singapore executed
a man Monday after he was convicted of storing 2.7 kilograms (slightly
more than six pounds) of marijuana at his apartment. Raman Selvam
Renganathan, 39, was hung at Changi Prison. He was found guilty of
drug trafficking after an eight-day trial last September.

Another man arrested in the
same case, Dhanabalan Gopalkrishnan, 33, awaits sentencing. Dhanablan
in turn named Rama Selvam as the mastermind. Oddly enough, Selvam
didn't get the death penalty; instead he was sentenced to 20 years and
24 lashes.

Under Singapore law, anyone
possessing more than a half ounce of heroin or a little more than a pound
of marijuana is presumed to be a drug trafficker. The only penalty
available for drug trafficking is death by hanging.

In a January report, Amnesty
International harshly criticized Singapore for its use of the death penalty.
In that report, Amnesty noted that of 408 executions reported by Singapore
since 1991, 252 were for drug offenses. The actual number executed
for drug offenses is higher, said Amnesty, because for the last three years
the Singapore government has released only the total number of executions
and has refused to say who was executed for what (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/320/singapore.shtml).

"Many of those executed have
been migrant workers, drug addicts, the impoverished or those lacking in
education," Amnesty said in the January report. "Drug addicts are
particularly vulnerable. Many were hanged after being found in possession
of relatively small quantities of drugs. Singapore's Misuse of Drugs
Act contains several clauses which conflict with the universally guaranteed
right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and provides for a mandatory
death sentence for at least 20 different drug-related offenses. For
instance, any person found in possession of the key to anything containing
controlled drugs is presumed guilty of possessing those drugs and, if the
amount exceeds a specified amount, faces a mandatory death penalty for
"trafficking".

"Such provisions erode the
right to a fair trial and increase the risk of executing the innocent,"
Amnesty stressed. "Moreover, it is often the drug addicts or minor
drug pushers who are hanged, while those who mastermind the crime of trafficking
evade arrest and punishment."

The Singapore government
defended its policy. "By protecting Singaporeans from drugs, we are
protecting their human rights," Inderjit Singh, a member of parliament,
told the Associated Press. "The rule breakers have to be dealt with
-- it's the same in any part of the world," said Singh, who is also president
of a chip-making company. "We just do it differently."

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